Design Article
Raspberry Pi goes low power
Peter Clarke
2/5/2013 8:34 AM EST
LONDON – The Model A version of the credit-card sized Raspberry Pi computer is becoming available in Europe for a price of about $25.
The Model A is a stripped-down version of the Model B Raspberry Pi, which has been on sale for some time, but with no Ethernet, a single USB port and 256-Mbytes of RAM.
Stripping down the Model A means it is $10 lower cost than the Model B but perhaps more interestingly for some users is that it consumes about one-third of the power of the Model B. So for battery- or solar-powered applications, such as robots, sensor platforms in remote locations, industrial automation, datalogging and so on the Model A is a better option. There is discussion of rewriting software to reduce power consumpion yet further to perhaps a tenth of the current level on the Model B board.
Customers outside Europe can order a Model A Raspberry Pi, but there will be a short delay in processing their order waiting on some paperwork, according to the Raspberry Pi website.
Click on image to enlarge.
Raspberry Pi Model A single board computer. Note the absence of Ethernet PHY, no RJ45 connector and the single USB connection.
For related perspective, here's a video shot at Electronica in Munich last November. Gert van Loo, who developed the original Alpha hardware for Raspberry Pi, takes about his GertBoard I/O board:
Related links and articles:
www.raspberrypi.org
News articles:
London Calling: Sony set to make Raspberry Pi
Electronica: Raspberry Pi gets another I/O board
London Calling: Lego computer, Arduino phone
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Duane Benson
2/5/2013 11:52 AM EST
This is a good modification. There are probably a lot of applications for which low-power is more important than the extra features.
The Raspberry Pi was originally intended primarily for educational use as a low cost way to give student programming experience. Does anyone know how successful that part of the program has been? I know quite a lot have been sold, but how many are to educational institutions and how many of those are in use with working curriculum?
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yalanand
2/6/2013 6:27 AM EST
@Duane, I think the program has been very successful. Many of my friends ordered the kit and are developing very interesting applications using this device. I am glad it released low-power version as-well which will help the developers because they dont have to worry about powering this.
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bobbytsai
2/5/2013 8:41 PM EST
have been using it to teach 6th and 8th (5 kids) graders basic python programming. it has good community support with plenty of programming examples. combine it with a few ebay relay boards, switches or stepper mottor drivers and it can be used to teach a bunch of stuff to kids.
having volenteered in schools, elementry, middle and high school over the past 20 years (lego robotics, BEST ...) i have found few teacher that would be able to make use of something like raspberry pi unless they are handed a structured curriculum with all materials. with a few mentor, i think it can work. it not an issue finding teacher wanting to provide this type of education but they need help.
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Edward Rivas
2/6/2013 11:45 AM EST
I don't have a Pi but I am developing a Linux/ARM system and I find the Ethernet to be an invaluable debugging port. How does one access the console or download code without an Ethernet port on the Model A? I assume there is a serial port for tty support.
IMO, stripping out Ethernet eliminates one of the most awesome things about using Linux in an embedded application: Rich networking support. But I can see how if you were using Python that this might still be useful. Otherwise, I would think that an Arduino board might be a better choice given that it is real time and lower power and still comes with a massive base of support.
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Ossian
2/6/2013 3:18 PM EST
Use a USB Ethernet dongle. If you are not creating a wired network enabled device, then using a USB solution for development is the way to go.
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